A major U.N. report on climate change warned Monday of "out of control" consequences from global warming, and the Obama administration weighed in that "the costs of inaction are catastrophic." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's 32-volume, 2,610-page report, released in Yokohama, Japan, early Monday, predicts more and worse cases of consequences already seen, including killer heat waves in Europe, wildfires in the U.S., droughts in Australia and deadly floods in Mozambique, Thailand and Pakistan. "If we don't reduce greenhouse gases soon, risks will get out of hand. And the risks have already risen," said one of the authors, Maarten van Aalst, a top official at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Said another author, Princeton University Professor Michael Oppenheimer, "We're all sitting ducks." After days of wrangling, more than 100 governments unanimously approved the 49-page summary, written by scientists and aimed at world leaders. The summary mentions the word "risk" more than 5 times per page.

A picture taken off a computer monitor shows a piece of unknown debris floating in the water below a Royal New Zealand P3 Orion while it searches for missing Malaysia Airlines flight 370 over the Indian Ocean on Monday. (Rib Griffith/AFP/Getty Images)

Orange objects spotted by a search plane in the Indian Ocean were fishing equipment unrelated to the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, official said Monday, dashing hopes of a breakthrough. The sighting of four 2-meter orange objects Sunday by an Australian P-3 Orion had been called the most promising lead yet. "This is an extraordinarily difficult exercise. ... We are searching a vast area of ocean and we are working on quite limited information," Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, adding that the best brains in the world are working on it. "If this mystery is solvable, we will solve it." Ten planes and 11 ships were in or en route to the search zone, about 1,150 miles west of Australia. Malaysia Flight 370, a red-eye from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, vanished early March 8, more than three weeks ago, for mysterious reasons. The batteries that make its black box ping are expected to go dead after one month, or about a week from now.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev watches Russian troops on parade at a wreath-laying ceremony Wednesday at a memorial to the 1941-1942 defense of Sevastopol during World War II. in Sevastopol, March 31, 2014. (Alexander Astafyev/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Crimea on Monday and showered the region with promises of funds to improve power supplies, water lines and education. Meanwhile in Kiev, Ukraine, acting President Oleksandr Turchinov rejected Moscow's suggestion that the country be transformed into a loose federation. "Russia's leadership should deal with problems in the Russian Federation, and not with Ukraine's problems," Ukraine's acting president Oleksandr Turchinov said. "It is Ukrainians that should dictate the form of the new constitution and how the country is structured." Russia, under pressure to lighten tensions by pulling back tens of thousands of troops massed at the border, said one of its battalions was being withdrawn. Medvedev led a surprise visit of Cabinet ministers to Crimea, where Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted a picture of himself upon arrival and wrote, "Crimea is ours, and that's that." Crimea, an independent republic within Ukraine since the 1950s, was annexed by Russia last month.

Enhanced interrogation did not contribute meaningfully to the search for this man, a Senate investigation has concluded.
(AP Photo)

As the deadline to sign up for Obamacare fell Monday, the HealthCare.gov website once again seized up under "record traffic," preventing new users from accessing application and enrollment tools. The problem with the problem-plagued site was resolved by 1:30 p.m. ET, the Health and Human Services Department said. People who missed their window to sign up may still be able to take advantage of a grace period and other extensions announced last week. Administration spokesman Aaron Albright said the site undergoes "regular nightly maintenance" that was extended because of a "technical problem" involving "a software bug." The site, which was receiving 1.5 million visitors a day last week, received about 1.7 million on Sunday. The federal site serves 36 states, while 14 states and the District of Columbia run their own exchanges.

Didn't they see "Zero Dark Thirty"? A Senate investigation has concluded that waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" often considered torture did not provide key evidence in finding Osama bin Laden, according to congressional aides and others familiar with the still-secret, 6,200-page report. The CIA disputes that conclusion, citing an evidence trail leading to bin Laden's walled compound in Pakistan as vindication of the harsh interrogation methods it used. The most high-profile terrorist subjected to them was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, who was waterboarded 183 times. KSM confirmed that he knew an important bin Laden courier with the nom du guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti -- but the Senate report says KSM discussed al-Kuwaiti months after being waterboarded while undergoing standard interrogation. And he neither acknowledged al-Kuwaiti's significance nor provided interrogators with the courier's real name. Finding and following the courier was ultimately what allowed the CIA to find bin Laden (not to mention having Jessica Chastain on the case).

The Wire, a summary of top national and world news stories from the Associated Press and other wire services, moves weekdays. Contact Karl Kahler at 408-920-5023; follow him at twitter.com/karl_kahler.